The shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers is one of the events that inspired President Donald Trump to use federal agents to increase policing in Washington, D.C., which began Friday morning. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
Federal law enforcement agencies began patrolling Washington on Friday morning, after President Donald Trump said this week that crime in the nation’s capital is “out of control.”
The federal policing began at 12:01 a.m. EDT Friday. The new patrols are led by the U.S. Park Police, and will include agents from the U.S. Capitol Police, FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, D.C. Metropolitan Police, Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies.
“President Trump has directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens. Starting tonight, there will be no safe harbor for violent criminals in D.C. President Trump is committed to making our nation’s capital safer for its residents, lawmakers, and visitors from all around the world,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
The order was announced just hours before the effort was to begin. Trump has been focused on youth crime in the district after a couple of high-profile incidents.
On Sunday evening, a former DOGE employee was allegedly attacked near his car in the district, drawing criticism from the president. Police arrested two 15-year-olds the next day
It also follows the shooting deaths of two Israeli Embassy workers in May.
While these two events have gotten lots of attention in media reports, crime in Washington is actually down. In 2024, violent crime was at a 30-year low, according to federal data, and is down another 26% this year, according to the D.C. Police.
But issues with violence in the city are not new. In 2023, the district had the third-highest rate of gun homicides among cities with more than 500,000 people, just behind Memphis and Baltimore, according to Everytown for Gun Safety data.
The policing effort is part of the president’s “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful,” an executive order announced in March. The order wants to ensure “all applicable quality of life, nuisance, and public-safety laws are strictly enforced,” including crimes involving assault, battery, larceny, graffiti, public intoxication and more.
Though Trump has mentioned the National Guard in the past, it wasn’t immediately clear if it would be involved in this effort.
“We’re going to beautify the city. We’re going to make it beautiful. And what a shame, the rate of crime, the rate of muggings, killings and everything else. We’re not going to let it, and that includes bringing in the National Guard maybe very quickly too,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“I think that we should govern District of Columbia. It’s so important, the D.C. situation. I think that we should run it strong, run it with law and order,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One in February, CNN reported.
On Tuesday, Trump wrote in a social media post that teens in the district are too unafraid of consequences. “They are not afraid of Law Enforcement. Because they know nothing ever happens to them, but it’s going to happen now!”
